The idea of a first rate diploma for all students is a commendable goal. Kudos to Sacramento's plan that is apparently meeting the needs of students to achieve the requirements to pass the CAHSEE, pursue higher education, and acquire a job in the work force. The eighth grade "summer bridge program" is a first step to take in a tutoring plan. Providing an alternative education menu provides the opportunity for success for every student who works hard to pass the standards requirements. A valid diploma provides a foundational track of success for our youth preparing them for their future in the business world. Similarities in GGUSD are leading in the success of growth in academic achievement and forward progress of English Language Learners (ELL), Special Education students, and mainstream students. Other strategies used are intervention classes for third grade students not meeting academic standards, mandatory tutoring for tenth grade students earning a D or F in English and Math, and for those students failing the CAHSEE on the first attempt. Diagnostic intervention at important transitional academic levels (i.e. grade 3, 8, 10), and tutoring programs can be enacted in every school district within a year, providing timely and dramatic academic progress for all students in California.

I would guess that if money available is infinite, there would be no limit to the additional programs to get students to pass the exam. However, the amount of money is fixed so all the extra money spent on those who have not passed the exam is money taken away from the rest. It’s that 80/20 rule – do you spend 80% of the resources on 20% of the kids? How do you folks feel about the focus on 10% of the kids knowing that it comes at the expense of the other 90%?

Hopefully these programs will expose some of the weaknesses in our educational systems that are allowing many of our students to advance to high school unprepared. If these problems are addressed correctly then we won't need to spend a disproportionate amount of resources trying to get kids to catch up since they won't be falling behind in the first place.

Naturally there will be some exceptions, such as the example of students who are english learners. But our system already provides additional assistance to children to are physically or learning disabled. So this is not necessarily a situation where we are doing good for one group of students at the expense of another. I think it can be win-win if we use this process as a way of getting to the core problems.

In manufacturing the Japanese call that Quality at the Source. The idea is that you discover quality problems where they occur rather than doing a final inspection and fixing them at the end. With that system there is no need for a final inspection because everything is inspected and guaranteed to be high quality at each step in the process. That means that we should be focusing on students in middle or elementary school before they are behind, since it takes a lot more time, money and effort to catch them up later.

This following is designed to look at math in schools and may shed light on one reason why some students have difficulty with math.

From the math perspective, all students are supposed to be in Algebra 1 in the 8th grade. Another way of saying that is, all students are supposed to be in AP Calculus their senior year (8th is Alg 1, 9th is Geometry, 10th is Alg 2, 11th is Trig/Pre-Calc, 12th is Calc). When viewed from this perspective, I have a feeling many people would argue that not all students need to be in calculus in high school to be "successful." In fact, how many adults are successful without taking calculus in high school?

The problem with putting all students in Algebra 1 in the 8th grade is that many of them are not cognitively ready for Algebra so early. The solution to this was that students are introduced to the concepts at such an early age. This is done at the expense of exploratory activities in the primary grades. Using tape measures and how many cards are in a deck are no longer common knowledge. We have sacrificed number sense in order to put more students in Algebra; in the long run this will hurt the students. They can compute but cannot think in mathematical terms because many of them do not understand how the math works.

I am not trying to criticize anyone, especially not the elementary school teachers. They are forced to teach the curriculum designed by the state. Trying to force all students to take college prep Algebra 1 in the 8th grade, thereby putting them on the calculus as a senior track, is unnecessary and is a disservice to our students.